Yokosuka

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Yokosuka-shi
横須賀 市
Yokosuka
Geographical location in Japan
Yokosuka (Japan)
Red pog.svg
Region : Kanto
Prefecture : Kanagawa
Coordinates : 35 ° 17 '  N , 139 ° 40'  E Coordinates: 35 ° 16 '53 "  N , 139 ° 40' 19"  E
Basic data
Surface: 100.68 km²
Residents : 393,894
(October 1, 2019)
Population density : 3912 inhabitants per km²
Community key : 14201-8
Symbols
Flag / coat of arms:
Flag / coat of arms of Yokosuka
Tree : Prunus speciosa
Flower : Crinum asiaticum
Bird : Common gull
town hall
Address : Yokosuka City Hall
11 Ogawa-chō
Yokosuka -shi
Kanagawa  238-8550
Website URL: http://www.city.yokosuka.kanagawa.jp/
Location of Yokosukas in Kanagawa Prefecture
Location of Yokosukas in the prefecture

Yokosuka ( Japanese 横須賀 市 , - shi ) is a city in Japan , located in Kanagawa Prefecture .

geography

The city is located at the mouth of Tokyo Bay on the Miura Peninsula on Sagami Bay . One kilometer east of the coast is the island of Sarushima , which is the largest natural island in the bay. The largest island is Azuma-shima , which was the Hakozaki peninsula until the canal was built in 1889.

history

In 1063 Muraoka Tamemichi built the Kinugasa Castle on what is now Yokosuka. He later took the name Miura . The castle fell in 1187 in the battle of Kinugasa in which Miura Ōsuke Yoshiaki died.

Hōjō Tokiyori defeated the Miura in 1247, but members of the Sawara family adopted this family name and allied with the Hōjō.

From 1253 Nichiren taught in this area.

In 1518 the Miura were wiped out at Arai Castle by an attack by Hōjō Sōun .

In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu took control of the Kantō region, including Yokosuka, at the behest of Toyotomi Hideyoshi .

William Adams (1564-1620)

The adventurer William Adams reached Uraga on board the Liefde in 1600 and was the first British man to set foot in Japan. In 1612 he was given the title of samurai and a fiefdom in Hemi because of his services for the Shogun , which is now within the city limits of Yokosuka. A monument to Adam is still visible in Yokosuka today.

In 1720 the Tokugawa Shogunate set up a magistrate in Uraga ( 浦 賀 奉行 所 Uraga bugyōsho ). To defend Edo Bay , today's Tokyo Bay , an outpost was built near Ōtsu in 1842.

In 1853, the US naval officer Matthew Perry reached Tokyo Bay with his Black Ships and landed near what is now Yokosuka.

In 1865 the Yokosuka iron foundry was established. The French engineer Léonce Verny spent the next ten years overseeing the shipbuilding facilities.

The first modern shipyard in Japan with a brick dry dock was built in the Uraga district . The construction of the shipyard was a central point of an all-encompassing, modern infrastructure for the modernization of the Japanese industry. Other modern structures followed, such as the Hashirimizu Canal, foundries, brick factories and schools for training Japanese technicians.

In 1876 the villages of Uraga and Yokosuka were merged to form the municipality of Yokosuka, which in 1907 was merged with the municipality of Toshima to form the city of Yokosuka.

Yokosuka became one of the main shipyards of the Imperial Japanese Navy , building battleships like the Yamashiro and aircraft carriers like the Hiryū and Shōkaku . Furthermore, naval aircraft were constructed here.

In 1923 the Mikasa was set up as a museum ship. It is the only surviving forerunner to the dreadnought battleships .

Between 1938 and 1945, more than 260 caves were built in more than 20 separate tunnel networks under the entire fleet base . The known size of these networks is 17 miles and many more are distributed in and around Yokosuka. During the war, these tunnels were used to work on secret projects and as air raid shelters. Among the facilities in the tunnels were a 500-bed hospital, power station, mini-submarine factory, and warehouse. The number of personnel living in the tunnels was 800 people. The need for each marine facility to dig its own tunnels contributed to the disorganized construction of the tunnel system. In 1992 all known tunnels were examined and all but 3, which are still in use, were sealed for safety reasons.

Today, the number of square kilometers of the base, which is the largest of its kind in Japan, split into the US naval base ( Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka , essentially the entire neighborhoods Tomarichō, Kusugaurachō and Hakozakichō ), the headquarters of the United States Seventh Fleet is , and the smaller JMSDF Yokosuka Naval Base of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Forces , which extends southwest along the coast.

Attractions

Museum ship Mikasa

traffic

Town twinning

  • United StatesUnited States Corpus Christi , United States, since October 18, 1962
  • FranceFrance Brest , France, since November 26, 1970
  • AustraliaAustralia Fremantle , Australia, since April 25, 1979
  • United KingdomUnited Kingdom Gillingham , United Kingdom, since August 26, 1998
  • JapanJapan Aizu-Wakamatsu , Japan, since April 17, 2005

Neighboring cities and communities

sons and daughters of the town

Others

Yokosuka is the setting for the popular Sega game Shenmue .

Web links

Commons : Yokosuka  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files